The 32-lane Sirhaul toll plaza, located on the Delhi-Gurgaon border of the expressway, was shut down on February 19 following the Delhi High Court’s orders.

The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway concessionaire, MCEPL, may have to pay a penalty for not demolishing the Sirhaul toll plaza, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said.

The 32-lane Sirhaul toll plaza, located on the Delhi-Gurgaon border of the expressway, is the biggest in India. It was shut down on February 19 following Delhi High Court’s orders.NHAI had served a notice to Millennium City Expressway Private Limited ( MCEPL) to demolish the toll plaza structure before December 10, failing which the concessionaire would have to pay 25% of the demolition cost to the highway authority.

“MCEPL has not responded yet. We have no other option but levy a penalty of 25% of the demolition cost in addition to recovering the cost of dismantling the plaza. We will now get it done from a third party. We have asked the independent consultant firm to prepare the estimate for dismantling the toll plaza so that we can float tenders for the same,” said Ashok Kumar Sharma, NHAI’s project director for the expressway.

The removal of the toll plaza is likely to cost NHAI about ` 2 crore.

However, MCEPL has said it will move the court against NHAI as the previous expressway concessionaire, DGSCL, was responsible for demolishing the toll plaza.

“We will be left with no other option but to move the court against the NHAI’s directive on the toll plaza demolition. The bilateral agreement signed between the project lenders and DGSCL, submitted in the Delhi High Court early this year, clearly states that the responsibility of dismantling the toll plaza lied with DGSCL,” said Raghuraman.

He also said that NHAI had issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the past concessionaire for withdrawing from the project without fulfilling its responsibility of dismantling the toll plaza structure.

Meanwhile, commuters have been facing inconvenience with MCEPL switching off all eight high-mast lights at the toll plaza. This has made the area accident prone.

The dismantling of the Sirhaul toll plaza will be delayed further with NHAI and MCEPL at loggerheads over the issue.